here come the squid

day 4 out with mbari. this guy is one of my absolute favorites to observe: Taonius borealis. a small cousin of the colossal squid (same family, cranchiidae, or ‘glass’ squids), it’s one of our best insights into what the colossal squid might look like alive, and what it looks like is, quite simply, remarkable. almost every part of the body is completely transparent, with the exception of a few viscera and the eyes, the silhouettes of which are masked from underneath by the ink sac and very large light organs on the eyes. the squid can change from transparent to dark red within in a split second and has a wide range of appearances in between, with incredibly fine control over each individual pigment cell (chromatophore) on its body. this one was at about 468 m when we found him, hanging out in the classic ‘cockatoo’ pose (see images and video link here).